Funny What You Stumble On

Last night, on a seven or eight story office building next to my hotel, a big sign was going up about the "Concert In The Park". I didn't think there were any actual 'parks' nearby. I'm in the middle of an office park so I didn't think further about it.

This morning, I went for a run and sure enough, there was a stage going up behind the building where the sign was.

Right beyond the stage was a corn field; way out of place in the middle of this office park was a corn field. To realize how unlikely this is, if you've ever been there, think of Fairfax County, Va. Turns out this huge office park used to be a farm, and there are either some gummint incentives or some restrictions on the land that require they keep planting some corn.

Anyway, as it turns out, the concert was a once a year performance of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, followed by a fireworks show.

Imagine that! And I was right next door.

Funny thing about events with crowds: there is always a neurotic subset of the crowd that will do whatever necessary to beat the traffic out of the venue. It was amazing how many scurried before the end of the concert, and then there was a mass exodus before the fireworks.

Now I will admit, if we are at a boring ball game, where the chance of MY team coming back from a big deficit is remote, and my boy is falling asleep in his chair, or he's wound up and torturing people around us, then we will leave.

But a concert with fireworks is not a blowout ball game. Why leave early?